1. (i) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable camera or other instrument support and positioning system.
2. (ii) Description of the Prior Art
One of the most common such camera support systems is a tripod. In conventional tripods for cameras, a base plate is provided to which the camera is attached and two or three metallic pipes or tubes each having a smaller diameter are telescopically arranged or disposed within one another to permit the height of the tripod to be adjusted. The fixing of the telescoping leg segments in a desired position is conventionally done with collars located on the end of each of the inner leg positions so that upon rotation of a collar in one direction, the interfitting tubular leg is squeezed and held in position. However, the rotary motion is time consuming and renders difficult the accurate adjustment of the legs.
To overcome this disadvantage, a tripod having a leg clamping element, e.g., a snap lever, has been suggested, but this arrangement requires another element for fixing the snap lever in position. As a result, the element increased the overall size of the leg grasping mechanism which rendered the tripod inconvenient to transport easily as the overall collapsed size of the tripod was undesirably increased.
To overcome the foregoing drawback in the conventional tripod, the invention in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,900 patented Nov. 20, 1979 by Ina provides a tripod wherein the snap levers were located inside of U-shaped legs and were constructed so as to reduce the amount of force required to actuate the snap levers while decreasing the size of the collapsed length of the tripod. As a result, the overall compactness of the resulting tripod was said to be improved.
Another such support is the photographic lighting system in U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,322 of Wolfe patented Apr. 20, 1976. In that patent the structure for positioning lights was provided in the combination of vertical and horizontal supports and releasable means for folding the vertical and horizontal supports in various assembled parallelepiped relations, so that the supports could be quickly and adjustably assembled to enclose a relatively small object to be photographed in a fixed support lighting means on the structure in fixed locations. The disadvantage of such system was that it was not portable and could only be used to enable photographing objects located within its ambit.
Another camera support is that provided in U.S. Pat. No. 3,317,169 patented May 2, 1967 by Hendricks. In that patent, an anchor was described for a camera. The anchor included a mounting means on the camera and a coiled-up elongated member, which was adjustable in length secured at one end of the mounting means. The other end of the elongated member had an anchoring means to be anchored against an anchoring object. While this device had the advantage of portability, it suffered the disadvantage of not being able to support the camera against downward movement.
Yet another such camera support is that provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,605 patented Mar. 9, 1982 by Perisic. In that stand for photographic apparatus, provision was specially made for providing apparent relative movement in depth between a subject and a background by projecting the background onto a reflective surface, placing a subject to which movement is to be imparted in the optical path between the background and a camera, and synchronising the size of picture seen by the camera with size conditions imparted to the background. During an actual or apparent increase or decrease in size of the imparted background, the camera lens was synchronized to make a corresponding adjustment so that no apparent alteration in the background was seen by the camera lens whereas the subject which was only affected by the adjustment of the camera, appeared to move relative in depth to the background.
The arrangement for the camera and projector was one in which, in order to enhance the realism, synchronised panning and tilting was also provided and because, the projection was front projection, the camera and projector were mounted on the same stand. The stand provided in that U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,605 comprised means for supporting the photographic apparatus for movement about three transverse axes, the axes intersecting one another substantially at a common point. Preferably the axes were orthogonal to one another. Preferably, the means for supporting the photographic apparatus comprised a support mounted on a main frame rotatable about a first vertical axis, the support being mounted on the frame for rotation about a second horizontal axis, and part of the support being rotatable relative to its mountings about a third axis. The support could be a circular support mounted in bearings between spaced arms of the main frame, the first axis containing the center of the circle, the second axis being diametric and containing the center of the circle, and the third axis being through the center of the circle, and the ring of the support being rotatable relative to an outer ring. The disadvantage of such stand was that it was not truly portable and could not be used in various environments.
Other such camera supports are the hand held type used to support a camera and a light bar. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,471 patented Oct. 21, 1952 by Markowitz, the means to mount the camera included a horizontal slit at the bottom of the recess. A boss extended from the horizontal arm and was slidably received in the recess in order to mount the camera to the horizontal arm. While this provided adjustability of the camera with respect to the arm and the lamp support device, it did not provide any means to fix the supported camera in any spatial orientation.
Another such camera support was provided by U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,519 patented by Leurs. In that patent, a lamp was located on an angle bracket which could tilt down with reference to a horizontal bracket. A second angle bracket supported a camera perpendicular to the horizontal bracket. A pivot between the lamp support and the camera support permitted rotating the camera to either the horizontal or vertical position. This support was deficient in that the relative adjustment were made by means of finite, pre-aligned aperatures. In addition the support did not provide any means to fix the supported camera in any spatial orientation.
Another such camera support is that provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,135 patented Aug. 11, 1981 by Lupis. In that close-up photography aid, the accessory included a base frame made up of several arms, each having longitudinal slots therein, the arms being pivoted together. A camera was mounted on one arm, while a photographic subject, along with a background panel and co-light equipment were supported adjustably along any other of the arms by cooperation with the slots. Again while infinite adjustment along the arms was possible, the support did not provide any means to fix the supported camera in any spatial orientation.
Still another such camera support was that provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,988 patented Dec. 30, 1980 by Lepp. In that bracket for supporting electronic flash units in a desirable position relative to a camera, it was known that there were many known arrangements for coordinating and/or synchronizing electronic flash units with the shutter of a camera. In the patented device, a bracket for supporting a camera and, as well, electronic flash units, was one in which flash units were supported to close proximity to the camera and to the subject. The bracket included a camera-supporting rod and a pair of electronic flash supporting rods. The flash-supporting rods were joined to the camera-supporting rod by appropriate clamps which were controlled by clamp arrangements, such that positioning of the respective rods was easily achieved. Various camera mounting and positioning elements were also provided. Again with this patented device, there was no provision to fix the supported camera in any spatial orientation.